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Avatar (film)
Avatar is a 2009 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was made by Lightstorm Entertainment and released by 20th Century Fox on December 18, 2009. The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi — the sapient and sentient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon — resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives. Avatar had been in development since 1994 by James Cameron, who wrote a 114-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to James Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film. In early 2006, James Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora. He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned. The film was first titled Project 880, and was released in traditional 2D and 3D formats, along with an IMAX 3D release in selected theaters. The film is estimated to have cost over $300 million to produce, and another estimated $200 million for the distribution and other costs, thus totaling to about half a billion dollars. Avatar is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Opening to critical acclaim, it earned an estimated $27 million on its opening day and an estimated $77,025,481 domestically its opening weekend. Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated $232,180,000 its opening weekend, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film. It is also considered to be a front-runner for awards and nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards. So far, it has been nominated to 4 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture - Drama. The film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. The movie has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, a feat only four other films have managed. As of January 7, 2010 Avatar is the second-highest grossing film of all time, surpassed only by Titanic. Plot In the Year 2154, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former U.S. Marine paralyzed from the waist down due to wounds sustained in combat, is selected to participate in the Avatar program. Originally, the position was supposed to be filled by his identical twin brother Tom Sully, who was recently killed by "a man with a gun". Arriving from the six-year journey from Earth to Pandora, Jake awakes from cryosleep with hundreds of other personnel to work at the human colony on this inhabited moon of Polyphemus, one of three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Jake meets with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), a hardened and seasoned military veteran who is in charge of security on the colony. Quaritch welcomes the new personnel and military soldiers and briefs them on Pandora. It is mostly covered with lush rainforests and wildlife, and home to the primitive Na'vi, a sentient race of tall, blue-skinned, cat-like humanoids. The colony personnel and military are under the jurisdiction of the Resources Development Administration (RDA), a non-governmental organization back on Earth. Jake is introduced to Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), a biologist who arrived on the same batch of personnel as he did, and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), a botanist as well as the leader of the Avatar program, which allows humans to control avatars, which are genetically engineered human-Na’vi hybrids who look like Na’vis. Using the avatars, Grace and her team have made some considerable progress teaching some Na’vi their ways and English as well as learning their language and culture. Grace is not pleased with RDA administrator Parker Selfridge’s (Giovanni Ribisi) decision to use Jake to replace his brother’s avatar position, as she will have to spend time training him in Na’vi culture as well as teaching him how to control his avatar. Parker stresses that RDA needs to mine the extremely valuable mineral unobtainium, which can be found in huge deposits on Pandora. Meanwhile, Quaritch makes Jake his informant to collect information on the Na’vi and their home, the Hometree (Kelutral), which has huge deposits of unobtainium buried deep below its surface. He wants Jake to gain their trust and convince them to leave their home within three months. After being trained for several weeks in his new body, Jake, Grace and Norm explore the native wildlife with Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a retired Marine pilot who is assigned to ferry them to their location. While Grace and Norm study the wildlife, Jake encounters a group of Hammerhead Titanotheres, a rhinoceros-like animal species. However, the Titanotheres flee from a Thanator (Palulukan), a terrifying land predator. Grace shouts at her group to flee. Jake runs from the Thanator, who is after him, and loses his equipment and weapon in the process. He narrowly escapes death from the predator and falls into raging rivers below. As darkness falls, Jake creates a fire torch using a sap substance on the trees, and once more runs and fights a large group of small sized Viperwolves (nantang). A female Na’vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) rescues him and kills several of the Viperwolfs before they all flee. Neytiri is at first angry with Jake for having caused her to kill the Viperwolfs needlessly and leaves him. Jake goes after Neytiri, who tells him not to follow as she knows he is an avatar hybrid - a dreamwalker from the sky people. Jake is caught by her fellow Na’vi, but Neytiri defuses the situation by telling her people that she witnessed him being chosen by the seeds of Eywa, a spiritual entity that the Na’vi worship, which indicate him as a pure spirit. Meeting Eytukan (Wes Studi) and Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), the king and queen of the Omaticaya Clan, who are also Neytiri’s parents, Jake presents himself as a warrior “dreamwalker”, a term the Na’vi used to call the avatar hybrids, with his intention to learn from them. Eytucan and Mo’at agree to teach Jake, making a reluctant Neytiri his tutor. From that day on, Jake spends his time learning the ways and culture of the Na’vi warriors, while jumping back to his original human body to report to Parker and Quaritch on information regarding the aliens. Grace arranges the movement of the Avatar team to a remote camp in the Hallejuiah Mountains after finding out from Dr. Max Patel that Jake has been having regular communications with Quaritch about the Na'vi. In his avatar form, Jake learns how to bond and control his flying Banshee, while gaining respect and admiration from the Na’vi, his relationship with Neytiri continuing to grow, but also earning the jealousy and annoyance of Tsu'Tey (Laz Alonso), Neytiri’s betrothed and next in line to be the clan leader. Reporting back to Quaritch, the colonel wants Jake to begin his plan to convince the tribe to leave the Hometree, but Jake is now reluctant and weary of his fellow humans to exploit the moon’s resources. He tells Quaritch that he will attempt to convince the tribe once he is made part of the People, a ceremony granting the greatest honor to an avatar. That night, Jake undergoes the ceremony where Eytucan considers him as one of their own and made part of the People, with Grace and Neytiri looking on. Jake is now part of the Omaticaya Clan, and with this he can choose his mate; he and Neytiri choose each other and spend that night Mating, and they are now mated for life. When Jake and Neytiri awake they encounter several bulldozers, sent by the RDA, destroying the nearby forests. In his attempt to stop them, Jake destroys one of the machine’s camera arrays. Returning to the Hometree, Jake reveals he was sent by his superiors to convince the tribe to leave. He attempts to explain to the tribe that the humans will destroy them and their home if they don’t leave, but they are upset by his apparent betrayal to listen. Neytiri refuses to listen to Jake’s explanations while Tsu’Tey attempts to kill him. Before anything else can happen, Jake and Grace are suddenly sent back to their human bodies when soldiers sent by Quaritch arrive and open their pods to take them back by force. Quaritch and Parker have seen footage of Jake destroying the bulldozer’s cameras and have checked his entry logs, indicating him as losing interest to participate in the plan as well as committing possible treason. Grace tells an unbelieving Parker that the trees and plant life make up a huge network which connects the spiritual consciousness of all life, including the Na’vi, and must not be destroyed. Given a chance to attempt a final plea to the tribe to leave their home, Jake and Grace return to their avatar forms but are instead caught and binded by the Na’vi, who intend to defend themselves. A large strike force led by Quaritch destroys the Home Tree, burning it to the ground, while killing large numbers of the tribe, despite their attempts to retaliate. Mo’at releases Jake and Grace from their bonds and pleads them to save her tribe. Eytucan is killed in the destruction, leaving Neytiri devastated. She tells Jake to stay away when he tries to comfort her. In the chaos, Jake and Grace are sent back to their original bodies to be placed under arrest for treason, along with Norm, who tried to stop the military from disabling their avatar forms. Trudy Chacon rescues the Avatar team from prison and flies them to safety, however Grace is shot by Quaritch when he attempts to stop them from leaving the colony. The team has the camp container holding the avatar transfer pods sent near the Tree of Souls, where the remaining Omaticaya tribe has fled to safety. Jake makes his intention to redeem himself in the eyes of the Na’vi and successfully tames and controls a Great Leonopteryx, an enourmous flying creature related to the Banshee, which a Na’vi has yet to accomplish in 4 generations, since Neytiri's grandfather's grandfather. Jake makes a plea to Mo’at to save Grace from dying by having her consciousness transferred permanently to her avatar form, using the Tree of Souls, before her human body expires. However, it is too late, as Grace is too weak to be transferred. Before she passes away, she tells Jake that she’s seen Eywa and the holy entity does exist. Following Grace's death, he asks Tsu’Tey, who has been made clan leader, and the entire tribe to stand with him and face the humans. Having earned back the tribe’s trust, Jake makes plans to join forces with other clans to strike back at the human forces. Surveying the Na’vi, Quaritch learns that other clans have converged with the Omaticaya at the Tree of Souls and decides to destroy them and their holy ground to put an end to their defiance once and for all. A huge military fleet commandeered by Quaritch approach the Tree of Souls, with the intention to send the area into flames. Thousands of Na’vi warriors led by Jake and Tsu’Tey take to the skies and attack the fleet, causing huge losses on both sides. Neytiri is knocked off her Banshee and flees the military ground forces, while Norm’s avatar is shot and injured, forcing him to jump back to his original body and continue the fight as a human. Tsu’Tey makes a valiant attempt to take down the shuttle carrying the explosives, but is killed in the process. Trudy goes against her fellow humans and attacks Quaritch’s ship which was attempting to shoot down Jake, but ends up having her ship shot down, killing her in the explosion. When all things seem bleak, the native wildlife of Pandora strike back in force, which Jake earlier made a plea to Eywa for help. The ground and aerial troops are scattered by the wildlife and destroyed, while the shuttle carrying the explosives is destroyed before it reaches the Tree of Souls. Neytiri hitches a ride on a Thanator. Jake manages to bring down Quaritch’s ship, but the colonel manages to get into his AMP mech and escape the ship’s destruction. Finding the camp containing the avatar pods by chance, Quaritch attempts to destroy Jake’s body but Neytiri and her Thanator attack him. However, Quaritch kills the Thanator with his AMP and is about to kill Neytiri when Jake arrives to challenge him. After a short fight, Jake destroys the AMP’s life support and canopy but is caught in the mech’s grip. Neytiri saves Jake by planting two arrows into Quaritch’s chest, killing the colonel. The camp is damaged during Quaritch's attack and leaks deadly Pandora air, leaving Jake's human body almost dying from the poisonous gas until Neytiri helps him put on his exopack. Having put an end to the military’s attack, the Na’vi round up the remaining humans to be sent back to Earth, never to return, while allowing a select group to stay with them on Pandora, which includes Jake, Norm, the avatar team and RDA defecters. Jake decides to stay in his avatar form forever, and concludes his final entry log of his experiences on his birthday. Returning to the Tree of Souls, he undergoes the consciousness transfer from his human body to his avatar form, and awakens to a new life as a Na'vi. Cast Humans *'Sam Worthington' as Jake Sully, an ex-marine, paralyzed from the waist down that volunteers to go to Pandora as an avatar. There he falls in love with the Na'vi princess, Neytiri. *'Sigourney Weaver' as Dr. Grace Augustine, a botanist that mentors Jake Sully and helps him in the amazing planet of Pandora. She is in charge of the Avatar Program. *'Michelle Rodriguez' as Trudy Chacon, a retired marine pilot that takes the avatar team to different parts on Pandora. *'Joel David Moore' as Norm Spellman, an anthropologist who studies plant and nature life (like Dr. Augustine). He is impatient to finally land on Pandora, after a long trip. *'Stephen Lang' as Colonel Quaritch, the chief of security on Pandora. He hates pandoran life and is the main antagonist. *'Giovanni Ribisi' as Parker Selfridge, the Pandoran Administrator of the RDA who does anything for money. *'Matt Gerald' as Lyle Wainfleet, a Secop corporal and the second-most prominent villain, after Quaritch. *'Dileep Rao' as Dr. Max Patel, the doctor of the operation that passes the human mind on an avatar. Na'vi *[[Zoe Saldana|'Zoe Saldana']] as Neytiri, the Omaticaya's Clan princess Jake initially betrays, but then falls in love with. *'CCH Pounder' as Mo'at, the clan's queen and mother of Neytiri. She feels uncomfortable about the humans visiting her home planet. *'Laz Alonso' as Tsu'Tey, one of the clan's finest warriors that was supposed to mate with Neytiri. *'Wes Studi' as Eytukan, the clan's king and father of Neytiri. He is very respected by his people. Soundtrack The Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture was released on December 15, 2009 by composer James Horner. Awards Golden Globes *Best Motion Picture: Drama (TBA) *Best Director (James Cameron) (TBA) *Best Original Score (TBA) *Best Original Song (TBA) Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) *Best Picture (Nominated) *Best Director/James Cameron (Nominated) *Best Cinematography (Winner) *Best Art Direction (Winner) *Best Editing (Winner) *Best Makeup (Nominated) *Best Visual Effects (Winner) *Best Sound (Winner) *Best Action Movie (Winner) New York Critic's Online *Best Picture (Winner) Producers Guild Award *Best Picture (TBA) Director's Guild Award *Best Director (James Cameron) (TBA) Writer's Guild Award *Best Original Screenplay (TBA) Sequels On December 11, 2009, one week before Avatar was released to theaters, James Cameron hinted that he intended to make two sequels if Avatar was successful enough. He'll also still make Battle Angel and producing Fantastic Voyage. 20th Century Fox has also announced plans to begin the Avatar film series. Since then it has been rumored for Avatar 2 to come out in 2011 or 2012. Cameron has stated he has mapped out the plot lines for the sequels, but they are not yet in production. Cameron also hinted that the next sequel might not just be about Pandora, but about the other moons orbiting Polyphemus. Whats Next For Avatar And James Cameron Sequels Trivia General *Announced on June 14, 2005 in the Hollywood Reporter, James Cameron's untitled "Project 880" is a parallel project being developed alongside Battle Angel (2011). It will use the same digital-3D camera system (developed by Vince Pace) and virtual production studio (developed by Robert Legato) that Cameron will use on Battle Angel. *A casting call was posted on the website of Mali Finn Casting in early December 2005 for the female lead. The casting call was erroneously reported to be for James Cameron's Battle Angel (2011). However, Battle Angel will be the second of the back-to-back Cameron projects with a likely 2013 release. *Michael Biehn was considered for the role of Colonel Quaritch. He met with James Cameron three times and saw some of the 3D footage, but in the end it simply came down to the fact that Cameron didn't want people thinking it was Aliens (1986) all over again, as Sigourney Weaver had already been cast. *Sigourney Weaver plays a 'James Cameron' persona for her character in 'Avatar'. Sigourney stated in an interview, "I teased him because to me I'm playing Jim Cameron in the movie as this kind of brilliant, approach-driven, idealistic perfectionist. But that same somebody has a great heart underneath. So I have to say I was always kind of channeling him." *'James Cameron' originally attempted to get this film made in 1999 as his immediate follow-up to Titanic (1997). However, at the time, the special effects he wanted for the movie ran the proposed budget up to $400 million. No studio would fund the film, and it was subsequently shelved for almost ten years. *James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic (1997). *The movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI. A large amount of motion capture technology was used for the CGI scenes. *Seeing the character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) convinced James Cameron that CGI effects had progressed enough to make Avatar (2009). *The movie is rated PG-13, according to commercials on air. *The first film to feature the new 20th Century Fox logo, which is animated by Blue Sky Studios, the makers of Ice Age (2002). It was according to trailers and commercials. *President Obama watched Avatar on Thursday, December 31, 2009 with his family. *Is the second highest grossing film (unadjusted for inflation) behind Titanic. External Links *Wikipedia article: Avatar (2009 film) *Official website:http://www.avatarmovie.com/ *Official youtube:http://www.youtube.com/user/officialavatar *Unofficial forums:http://www.avatar-forums.com/ Category:Avatar